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A review by annagy
A Ferry of Bones & Gold by Hailey Turner
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I'm not sure how to feel about this book.
Let's start with that I liked:
The world: there's gods, greek, norse, you name it, werewolves, vampires, demons, magic, fae (extremely briefly mentioned), dragons (also just in passing), but it somehow works and there are unique takes on some of them which I liked.
Most main characters are around 30yo and up. Love older women in power. Love reading about people closer to my age in general.
And now the things I didn't like so much:
The worldbuilding is very dense, which, you know, I like me some complex and well thought out lore, but what happened here was not exactly that. The infodumps were not only halting the action at the most inopportune moments, but somehow were also giving us only quarter of the information needed to understand what's happening. I think the author was trying to sprinkle the backstory here and there to keep some mystery going(like the full backstory of the main character, which we only found out in the last pages of the book) , but it just made me confused about character motivations and clear reasons why things were happening as they were.
For example, up until the very end I couldn't understand why is our human main character somehow the only person capable of stopping the bad guy while there are literal gods running around. All of these powerful entities and none of them even mentions why is it that they can't do anything themselves even though they clearly have a stake in it?I mean sure, somewhere halfway we find out that MC and big bad are blood related, so I surmised that it's blood magic, but on page that is just an offhand comment at the climax of the final battle.
Speaking of MC being Too Special To Live. His magic is apparently broken. So much so he's kicked out of military, he's tainting other people to the point of suicide and is generally hiding all this in shame and despair. I assume this was meant to paint him as the underdog, trying to save the world despite his limited abilities. But I never got the sense that he struggled in a fight? He's using powerful magic left and right. If he runs low on that, he has his deus ex machina godly dagger. If that also fails, he has gods saving his ass.
Other plot gripes:
- What's up with the one week deadline for the investigation? If the deadline was because of the summer solstice, which is mentioned, that's understandable. But it appeared to me like that was kept separate from the deadline promised by the MC to the civilian cop. When the whole world is falling around your ears I feel like you can just let it go, you know?
- The MC keeps saying that he wants a smoke and never gets one. It's not mentioned that he's trying to quit or anything. He just says he wants one, multiple multiple times, and just.. doesn't. WHAT IS THE POINT OF THAT.
- The love interest is a terribly underdeveloped character in my opinion. There's even a dual POV, he gets a couple of chapters, and yet, I have no deeper sense about what kind of person he is. Because of that I didn't really feel that much chemistry in the romance.
-How did Jono know Patrick's shields were carved into his bones? That didn't sound like something commonly done, how could he have known? Could have been conveniently explained away by his patron god telling him stuff, but we don't even get that. How does he know so much about magic in general, he's not a magic user.
- Where are the civilians? I can't remember a single person of significance that was not a god, creature, magic user or otherwise, police and military excluded. It's said that only a quarter of the population can use magic and yet, not a single one in sight.
- I don't think the main villain said a single word in this book? A lot was said about him, but he didn't really have a presence at all.
Phew, I didn't realize I had so much to say. All in all, I'll give the second book a try, I think it has a potential to be better, with all the base lore already established.
Let's start with that I liked:
The world: there's gods, greek, norse, you name it, werewolves, vampires, demons, magic, fae (extremely briefly mentioned), dragons (also just in passing), but it somehow works and there are unique takes on some of them which I liked.
Most main characters are around 30yo and up. Love older women in power. Love reading about people closer to my age in general.
And now the things I didn't like so much:
The worldbuilding is very dense, which, you know, I like me some complex and well thought out lore, but what happened here was not exactly that. The infodumps were not only halting the action at the most inopportune moments, but somehow were also giving us only quarter of the information needed to understand what's happening. I think the author was trying to sprinkle the backstory here and there to keep some mystery going
For example, up until the very end I couldn't understand why is our human main character somehow the only person capable of stopping the bad guy while there are literal gods running around. All of these powerful entities and none of them even mentions why is it that they can't do anything themselves even though they clearly have a stake in it?
Speaking of MC being Too Special To Live. His magic is apparently broken. So much so he's kicked out of military, he's tainting other people to the point of suicide and is generally hiding all this in shame and despair. I assume this was meant to paint him as the underdog, trying to save the world despite his limited abilities. But I never got the sense that he struggled in a fight? He's using powerful magic left and right. If he runs low on that, he has his deus ex machina godly dagger. If that also fails, he has gods saving his ass.
Other plot gripes:
- What's up with the one week deadline for the investigation? If the deadline was because of the summer solstice, which is mentioned, that's understandable. But it appeared to me like that was kept separate from the deadline promised by the MC to the civilian cop. When the whole world is falling around your ears I feel like you can just let it go, you know?
- The MC keeps saying that he wants a smoke and never gets one. It's not mentioned that he's trying to quit or anything. He just says he wants one, multiple multiple times, and just.. doesn't. WHAT IS THE POINT OF THAT.
- The love interest is a terribly underdeveloped character in my opinion. There's even a dual POV, he gets a couple of chapters, and yet, I have no deeper sense about what kind of person he is. Because of that I didn't really feel that much chemistry in the romance.
-
- Where are the civilians? I can't remember a single person of significance that was not a god, creature, magic user or otherwise, police and military excluded. It's said that only a quarter of the population can use magic and yet, not a single one in sight.
- I don't think the main villain said a single word in this book? A lot was said about him, but he didn't really have a presence at all.
Phew, I didn't realize I had so much to say. All in all, I'll give the second book a try, I think it has a potential to be better, with all the base lore already established.
Content Warnings
Minor: Gore